Three weeks ago, referee Andy Davies made the long trip up from Hampshire to take charge of our home game against Torquay. On Saturday, David Phillips will clock up even more miles on his way from Chichester, West Sussex, to oversee Dale’s home match with Wycombe.

This will be our second meeting with Mr Phillips this season, as he was also in charge of Dale’s 2-1 win at leaders Gillingham in September.

Before then, he had refereed the 4-1 defeat at Exeter in December 2008, a game in which Scott Wiseman was sent-off just before half-time.

He was also in the middle at Stevenage in September 2011 when Dale put on a defensive comedy show to lose 4-2.

Mr Phillips, a police officer, is in his fifth campaign as a league referee and although the majority of his games have been in League One and League Two, he has handled a number of Championship fixtures, including Birmingham v Blackpool on Tuesday.

All told this term, he has refereed 27 matches, showing 98 yellow cards and seven red.

Photo: Action Images

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